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This is an etymological study of the origins of the word
kibosh, which has long been one of the great mysteries of the English language. This monograph is one of the most significant etymological works directed at a single phrase.
List of contents
CHAPTER 1: Overview
CHAPTER 2: Introduction: ‘Origin unknown’; previous works; chronology
CHAPTER 3: Penal Servitude! continued
CHAPTER 4: Spread of put the kibosh on from Cockney
CHAPTER 5: Kibosh in several newspaper accounts
CHAPTER 6: Additional attestations of kibosh
CHAPTER 7: Three competing etymologies are unconvincing
CHAPTER 8: General observations
APPENDICES
Appendix #1: Anatoly Liberman’s 2013 article ‘Three Recent
Theories of Kibosh, continued’ (Aug. 14, 2013)
Appendix #2: kibosh-from-kurbash etymology, evidently first
Proposed by Matthew Little (Nov. 2009)
Appendix #3: Several newspaper items about chimney sweeps
Appendix #4: Political complexities in Britain of the early 1830s
Appendix #5: Notes & Queries items on a Yiddish origin of
kibosh/kybosh
Appendix #6: Two pictures illustrating use of the kurbash
REFERENCES
INDEX
About the author
Gerald Cohen is Professor of German and Russian, with a research specialty in etymology, at Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA.
Stephen Goranson works in the library of Duke University, where he also earned a doctorate.
Matthew Little is Associate Professor of English at Mississippi State University.
Summary
This is an etymological study of the origins of the word kibosh, which has long been one of the great mysteries of the English language. This monograph is one of the most significant etymological works directed at a single phrase.
Additional text
"Mr Cohen [...] worked with his co-authors to piece together how "kibosh" came into British usage in the 1830s. The resulting book 'Origins of Kibosh' in the Routledge Studies in Etymology series, settles on a convincing origin story." - Ben Zimmer, Wall Street Journal, 30-31 December 2017
"Read 'Origin of Kibosh' and you will indeed by instructed and amused." - Anatoly Liberman, The Oxford Etymologist, 29 November 2017
